Abolish the obligation to verify signatures for the People's Initiative, not just fees
The proposal for amending the Law on Referendum and People's Initiative, which the Assembly will decide on today, based on the Government's proposal and after the citizens' protest, contains a decision that the costs of signature verification for the People's Initiative will not be charged. The Government proposed a solution according to which the signatures of citizens for the People's Initiative would not be verified by notaries but by municipal administrations. In that way, the problem of costs is solved, which, in the case of a people's initiative for the adoption or amendment of the law, would amount to around 10,000 euros.
However, the proponents did not foresee a genuine possibility of another problem. Collecting signatures for a people's initiative is usually done in several locations in cities and not in the municipal premises, so the presence of municipal certifiers should be ensured at all these locations. It is quite certain that in some situations, local self-governments will not be able or will not want to meet the organizers of the People's Initiative and ensure the all-day presence of employees in places where signatures of support are collected. In order not to disturb the work of local self-governments and limit the realization of citizens' constitutional right to the People's Initiative, Transparency Serbia proposed that the obligation to certify signatures be abolished entirely, and we gave the same proposal during the public debate.
We especially emphasize that in the previous Law on Referendum, this obligation did not exist at all and that it is essentially unnecessary - the Assembly will in each case decide on the People's Initiative on the basis of its content and not based on the fact whether all data from the personal documents of the signatories of the initiative are entered correctly, which the certifiers should confirm. In addition, the legal solution discriminates between citizens who give signatures electronically – when signature verification is not required – and those who do not have an ID card in a form that does not allow electronic signing. TS submitted this proposal to all parliamentary groups and the Government, the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, and the Republic Secretariat for Legislation.
News
LTI 2022: Novi Pazar, Sombor and Sokobanja – Transparency Leaders
The most transparent local governments in 2022 are Novi Pazar, Sombor and Sokobanja, according to this year's survey of the Local Transparency Index (LTI 2022), which Transparency Serbia presented at today's press conference. The average transparency index of cities and municipalities in Serbia in 2022 is 49 points - one point…
... detaljnije ...Six years of delay in meeting GRECO recommendations
Transparency Serbia points out that official reactions from Serbia to the new GRECO report are inadequate concerning its content. Although GRECO stated in its report published on March 30, 2022,[1] that a more significant number of recommendations were met when compared to the recommendations from the previous one, it is…
... detaljnije ...Citizens pay 15.7 million euros for the election campaign
Citizens' money for elections The 2022 united presidential and parliamentary elections hit a record for the amount of money the Serbian citizens paid to get convinced by the parties to vote for their lists and candidates. This year, the total budget allocations, which most parties led together for both types of…
... detaljnije ...Distinct media domination of the ruling party and candidates through a functionary campaign and paid advertising
Citizens who are interested in the amount and sources of the party spending on the election campaign have been denied this information this year. Despite the newly introduced obligation to submit preliminary reports less than 12 hours before the "election silence", these reports have not yet been published for nine…
... detaljnije ...Insufficient transparency of election campaign financing
Very little data on the election campaign financing is available to the citizens in the elections 2022, as in the previous ones. The legal changes have brought almost no progress in that regard, Transparency Serbia's research shows. The subject of this research is voluntary transparency, that is, what the political entities…
... detaljnije ...Election 2022 Monitoring - TS presented the first findings
Intensive public officials' campaign, higher participation of state officials in party activities than in previous election cycles and media domination of Aleksandar Vučić and his election list through a combination of public officials' campaign, statements and guest appearances on TV and advertising are the main characteristics of the first four…
... detaljnije ...Proposals for amendments to improve the election process
Transparency Serbia sent to the Serbian Parliament proposals for amendments to the laws that are being changed before the announced April elections, which would significantly improve these regulations, and thus the election process. Proposals for amendments to the Law on Financing Political Activities, the Law on the Election of People's Deputies…
... detaljnije ...The Government missed the opportunity to significantly improve laws that change before elections
Transparency Serbia reckons that the Government missed the opportunity to significantly improve the laws that are being changed before the announced April elections, even though the line ministries received numerous concrete proposals within the public debate. As a result, running a "functionary campaign" will not be prevented once again, the…
... detaljnije ...Press Release on the issue of EPS management
Regarding the issue of Milorad Grcic's responsibility for the situation in the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS), Transparency Serbia calls on the Government of Serbia to ensure at least essential legality of work in public companies and to appoint directors elected at public competitions. We also recall that the Government…
... detaljnije ...Abolish the obligation to verify signatures for the People's Initiative, not just fees
The proposal for amending the Law on Referendum and People's Initiative, which the Assembly will decide on today, based on the Government's proposal and after the citizens' protest, contains a decision that the costs of signature verification for the People's Initiative will not be charged. The Government proposed a solution…
... detaljnije ...
Proposed amendments to the law do not solve the problem of "functionary campaign"
Transparency Serbia points out that the proposed amendments to the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on Prevention of Corruption, although useful, do not solve the problem of intensive "functionary campaign", which is much more represented in the media than presenting election participants programs and paid advertising. According to the…
... detaljnije ...For stronger independence of the judiciary, it is necessary to change the Constitution and the “clerk’s mind” of judges and…
Although amendments to the Constitution lead to positive changes, this is only the first normative step. It’s necessary to change the laws, but also the practice and awareness of both judges and prosecutors, as well as the public, in order to really achieve the goal of judicial independence. That was…
... detaljnije ...Agreement on electoral conditions does not solve all the problems
The political agreement between the two ruling and seven opposition political parties and the President of the National Assembly envisages some measures that can increase the integrity of the election process and the equality of election participants, but many problems are not touched at all or are only seemingly solved…
... detaljnije ...Corruption risks in regulations and lobbying in Serbia
Corruption risks in regulations In most cases, the competent ministries did not respect the obligation to submit draft laws to the Anti-Corruption Agency for an opinion, in order to determine whether they contain corruption risks, is what Transparency Serbia has found in the research "Corrupt risks in regulations and lobbying in…
... detaljnije ...The right to access information is threatened, and the announced changes to the law do not solve all important problems
Press release of the Coalition for Free Access to Information on the occasion of the International Day of the Public's Right to Know The Coalition for Freedom of Access to Information, on the occasion of September 28, the International Day of the Public's Right to Know, points out that the citizens…
... detaljnije ...The Commissioner annulled the decision of the National Fund for Health Insurance which denied access to data on Covid-19 procurements
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection annulled the decision by which the National Fund for Health Insurance refused to submit data to Transparency Serbia on the value of conducted procurements to counter the pandemic. TS previously filed a complaint with the Commissioner against the fund…
... detaljnije ...Useful, but insufficient suggestions from the dialogues on election conditions
Transparency Serbia points out that the proposals from the two inter-party dialogues on election conditions published so far do not offer clear solutions to some of the most important problems of election campaign financing and the use of public function to promote political entities. Bearing in mind that the precondition…
... detaljnije ...Press release regarding work on the new law on public information and media
Media Association, Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Association of Online Media (AOM), Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (IJAV), Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, Transparency Serbia and Journalists’ Association of Serbia (JAS), announced today that they sent letters to…
... detaljnije ...Easily verifiable lies of Goran Vesic
Goran Vesic, the deputy mayor of Belgrade, who is not competent for this matter, continued to comment on the procedure of “public bidding” for the lease of sports facilities in Dorcol, which was conducted by the city Commission for Business Premises. He did not hesitate to use lies – very…
... detaljnije ...With lies and insults, Vesic defends circumventing the law
The program director of Transparency of Serbia, Nemanja Nenadic, reacted to the insinuation, lie and insult made by the deputy mayor in a statement for one of Belgrade tabloids: The deputy mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesić, stated: “Nemanja Nenadic will go down in history as a person who would like to…
... detaljnije ...
Rigged public bidding for the lease of a sports complex in Dorcol
The City of Belgrade has announced an advertisement for the lease of a sports complex in Dorcol with conditions that abuse the purpose of public bidding because it can be met by a single company, which has organised this year’s tennis tournaments ATP and WTA 250 series. On 10 July 2021…
... detaljnije ...A new blow to the legal system and order in Serbia
The Ministry of Economy has stricken a new blow to the legal system and order in Serbia by trying to present that persons whose term of office as acting directors of public companies has expired continue to perform those functions legally. In the report from the public debate on the Draft…
... detaljnije ...Suggestions for improving access to information
The existing draft amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information must be significantly improved so that citizens can effectively exercise their rights and the authorities are adequately controlled. In addition, the provisions of other regulations must be changed at the same time, which is not foreseen at all…
... detaljnije ...Letter to the President of the National Assembly – On the occasion of the amendment of the Constitution
On 14 June 2021, the Judicial Subgroup of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union sent a letter to the speakers of the National Assembly and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Legislation on the occasion of the Committee’s future work on amending the Constitution. Dear Mr…
... detaljnije ...Public procurement and public-private partnerships - between solid regulations and poor practice
Public procurement in Serbia is ever less public even though basic regulations in this area are mostly harmonized with the European standards. This is the main conclusion of the research Transparency Serbia has performed, and presented at today’s media conference. As poor as the situation in public procurement is, it is…
... detaljnije ...Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance - the new draft endangers the achieved level…
Specific solutions from the Draft Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance are unacceptable because they lower the existing citizens’ right to access information, a group of civil society organisations announced. On the other hand, the draft does not contain solutions to some of the biggest…
... detaljnije ...Serbia ranks low in the transparency of anti-crisis measures
Serbia is among the countries that did not bring packages of urgent economic and fiscal measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in a sufficiently transparent way - show the results of the International Budget Partnership (IBP) survey from Washington Transparency Serbia transmits. None of the 120 observed countries, according to the…
... detaljnije ...A call to the prosecution to react to the illegal appointment of the acting director
Transparency Serbia called on the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office (RPPO) to file a lawsuit against the violation of the law to the detriment of the public interest, i.e. to initiate an administrative dispute to challenge the legality of the decision on the retroactive appointment of Filip Radović as acting director…
... detaljnije ...In memoriam: Danilo Pejović (1965-2021)
We are sad to inform our associates that our friend and financial director of the organization, Danilo Pejović, suddenly left us. With his dedicated work in the past two decades, Danilo has made an immeasurable contribution to the establishment, strengthening and stable functioning of Transparency Serbia. In addition, Danilo left an indelible…
... detaljnije ...Without a substantial change in the behaviour of public officials and MPs, there is no rule of law
On the occasion of a series of activities of the Government of Serbia on the formal implementation of the Action Plan for Chapter 23, The National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) Working Group on Chapter 23 warns that only formal fulfillment of criteria without substantial change of behavior does…
... detaljnije ...
- 1
- 2
- 3
Pretraga
